Competition Advisory Service

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

Talked to a friend who knows a hell of a lot more than I do, and it is clear
that the Competition Advisory Service business was a slightly complicated
story. Not sure I follow it all, or want to try. ARI (shorthand for Alfa
Romeo, Inc, the US company) had a Performance Options Catalog (shorthand POC)
and a Competition Reference Handbook (shorthand CRH) which were conceived as
works-in-progress, subject to amendment (tear out this page and substitute
this other one) after each race weekend. It was never intended to be a fixed
("finished") book EVER. The Competition Advisory Service (shorthand CAS) of
which I have a copy was produced by AROC (shorthand for Alfa Romeo Owners'
Club) by editing-down a particular state of this work-in-progress, with
appreciably less communication and understanding (or permission) than the
people who were doing the actual work thought should have occurred, resulting
in a certain amount of ill-will, blasphemy, maybe even turd-flinging and
whatnot. I AM NOT GONNA GIT IN THE LINE OF FIRE. They aren't all my friends
but some are, I hope. Regardless of which version or state of the thing one is
lucky enough to find, the stuff in it was at least shards of the state-of-the-
art, so to speak, thirty years ago, plus or minus a few, and is fascinating
historical detritus to those of us whose minds (if that is not an
overcharacterization) can be engaged by the partial approximations of best of
the past. Its use as a starting point for Greg's rebuild (which is where this
started) is still, in my opinion, dubious.

Enjoy what pleases you-

John H.

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